Electronic communication technology is continuing to evolve, and part of this evolution includes handling tasks that were commonly not orchestrated using electronic communication along with the introduction of new forms of electronic interaction. For example, wired and/or wireless communication technology that is now becoming available in devices may allow for the transmission and reception of various multimedia information including, but not limited to, audio information (e.g., voice interactions such as telephone conversations and teleconferencing, audio streaming, etc.), video information (e.g., videoconferencing, video sharing, video streaming, etc.) and textual information (e.g., email, messaging, etc.). In addition to interaction at the user level, service providers have also employed these forms of communication to facilitate everyday tasks. For example, accessing accounts, paying bills, shopping, requesting customer service, setting up appointments, making reservations, reading the new, monitoring security and many more daily tasks may all be handled electronically through the use of a variety of devices.
At least one result of the evolution of electronic communication technology is a desire for interaction with multiple information streams at the same time. Information streams may include substantially continuous flows of multimedia information that may be transmitted and/or received via wired and/or wireless communication. For example, electronic messaging or email communication, reading news reports or receiving news updates from an online (e.g., Internet) source, reading and/or writing online reviews, blogs, etc., may all constitute textual-based information streams. Likewise, information streams may also include conducting voice-based communications like telephone calls, streaming music, streaming programs, streaming movies, tracking scores from sporting events, interacting with accounts online, performing online searches, viewing Internet web pages, playing online games, etc.
Most importantly, users may desire to interact with some or all of the above information streams simultaneously. Existing picture-in-picture technology was developed to allow multiple television (TV) channels to be viewed concurrently on the same screen. While this technology may perform acceptably for simply viewing multiple TV channels, it falls far short of being able to handle continuously changing information streams comprising multimedia information, often requiring two-way interaction, the information streams being received from various sources not limited to conventional TV feeds, multimedia playback devices, gaming consoles, the Internet and other peripheral input devices like cameras, etc. Moreover, existing technology does not allow users to configure or manage interactions with multiple concurrent information streams.
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art.